


Mandrakes

by TeaRoses



Category: Jewish Scripture & Legend
Genre: F/M, does not follow traditional interpretation, sort of a poem, very short fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:20:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24811468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeaRoses/pseuds/TeaRoses
Summary: The boy knew that his mother was the unwanted one, and he would give her the mandrakes.
Relationships: Leah/Jacob implied, Rachel/Jacob implied
Kudos: 1





	Mandrakes

**Author's Note:**

> From Genesis 30: 14-16
> 
> One day during the wheat harvest, Reuben found some mandrakes growing in a field and brought the roots to his mother, Leah. Rachel begged Leah to give some of them to her. 
> 
> But Leah angrily replied, "Wasn't it enough that you stole my husband? Now will you steal my son's mandrake roots, too?" Rachel said, "I will let him sleep with you tonight in exchange for the mandrake roots." 
> 
> So that evening, as Jacob was coming home from the fields, Leah went out to meet him. "You must sleep with me tonight!" she said. "I have paid for you with some mandrake roots my son has found." So Jacob slept with her.

The mandrakes had a song, one that started with the world on the third day. They sang of secret places, where the seeds sprouted, where the young would grow. Reuven heard the song, and reached for the berries. They sang of sadness then, wanting to stay in the ground, not wanting their destiny, but he took them. The boy knew that his mother was the unwanted one, and he would give her the mandrakes.

When Leah accepted them they sang to her.

"What will you do with us?" they asked.

"I will eat you, and sleep with my husband, and concieve," she replied.

"Does it prove you are loved that you eat us and sleep with your husband?"

Leah only sighed. "I know that I am loved, if not by him, if not by you, by God."

The berries laughed. "Your sister is the one he loves."

"Do you think I do not know that? I need to bear children," she said. "And my sons will be great men, this is our song always, but they will be like stone statues standing forever and I will not touch them."

"You wish you could bear sons who were not forefathers?" they asked.

"Perhaps I do. Perhaps I do not like losing them to destiny. As for Rachel, I do not know what she wants."

"You yourself will be great," they said.

"For some. Because they will not know how I cried when I held my babies and knew that they were chosen."

"You will be the mother," they insisted.

"I will always be the one who was unwanted, who was second, who loved a man who did not love her. No one will know what I really was, that I had other thoughts besides Jacob and my sons."

"Your sister wants us, be fair, give us to her. She too will have great children."

Leah was crying. "Perhaps I only want to spare her the pain of bearing the twelve sons."

"Give us to her," they insisted.

Leah gave them, still crying, telling her sister that she thought of Jacob. But really she thought of the sons, who would always love G-d more than her. And Leah and Rachel each had their nights with their husband, but Leah was the one who prayed for a daughter.

And the song went on.


End file.
